Higher education expenditures persistently rise due to various economic, demographic and socio-cultural reasons. This caused repeated calls for reforms of the economic model in the higher education sector and dramatically increased the importance of the economic evaluations in the last decades due to concerns for efficiency. The above academic challenges led us to pioneering an attempt to evaluate the capabilities of financial management tools for three Western Balkan countries, i.e. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. The precondition for successful reform processes is certainly a comprehensive and high-quality accounting information system that meets not only the requirements of external reporting but also the requirements of internal users, especially the management of HEIs. In that context, the main aim of this paper is to overview the legal and organizational accounting systems' characteristics focusing on external and internal reporting requirements, and study the level of development and usage of cost accounting at HEIs in selected countries. Therefore, our paper employs research methodology based on the survey conducted. The results show great differences in legal and organizational characteristics of accounting systems among the countries as well as in the development stages of cost accounting systems, which mainly focus on inconsistent overhead allocation as well as different accounting basis usage. The research results confirm poorly conceptualised and structured reporting of accounting information for management purposes, offering several applicable platforms for creation of performance management approaches and strategies in the public sector.

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This paper emphasizes the economic importance of the civil society sector in the national socio-economic context. There is a systematic neglect of the economic and financial components of civil society organizations and non-profit sector in Croatia even though a significant volume of civil society organizations’ activities is funded from public sources and there is a high possibility of exploitation of their relatively privileged tax position. The purpose of this paper is to present research results of the funding sources, the financial potential and the elements of economic performance of citizens’ associations in the Republic of Croatia. The survey sample includes over 20,000 citizens’ associations which have submitted financial reports to the Registry of Non-profit Organizations in accordance with the statutory obligation. The research is based on aggregated data reported in the Balance Sheet and Performance Report for 2015 and 2016. The scientific contribution of the paper is reflected in the assessment of the financial performance and financial transparency of the activities of civil society organizations in the Republic of Croatia and their sustainability in comparison with Serbia and Slovenia.

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The number of studies on non-financial reporting by public sector entities is steadily increasing. Public sector entities have begun to report non-financial data to meet the needs of various stakeholders. Previous research has shown that public entities have begun to disclose non-financial information through various non-financial reports, such as sustainability reports, popular reports, integrated reports, and reports on websites or social media. This paper examines the disclosure of non-financial information in the form of non-financial reports by Croatian public sector entities and the reasons for publishing or not publishing such reports. The research is based on a questionnaire survey of Croatian public sector executives conducted in 2022. The results show that Croatian public sector entities have started to publish non-financial reports and that publication in the future is viewed positively. However, most of those who indicated that their institution does not prepare non-financial reports and those who do not know if their institution prepares the report are unfamiliar with non-financial reporting and non-financial reporting standards. This paper adds to the limited literature on non-financial reporting in the public sector. It reveals that the most important reason for not publishing non-financial reports by public sector entities is the absence of a legal requirement for non-financial reporting.